Gates: Syria Red Line Was ‘Serious Mistake’

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it was a “serious mistake” for the Obama administration to declare a red line on chemical weapons use in Syria, a step that readied U.S. missile cruisers for an attack last summer.

“One should be extremely careful about preventive war,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal when asked to define the “Gates doctrine.”

Such wars depend on high levels of accuracy and confidence in U.S. intelligence, and “frankly, we shouldn’t have that much confidence that we can get it right,” he said, citing the Iraq war as an example.

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